Walk on the wild side, along paths less trodden

Haider Kikabhoy (right) leads a tour of Wanchai.

I joined Walkin's inaugural cemeteries tour, held on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Our group assembled in the lobby of the Cosmopolitan Hotel at the very end of Queen's Road East, and Chow was our guide.

"Happy Valley isn't happy because of the racetrack," she begins. "It is a euphemism for our final resting place."

Our group consisted of tourists, expats and locals who trouped after her as she led us to Hong Kong Cemetery's entrance. Once within its gates, the sounds of nearby traffic along Wong Nai Chung and Canal roads receded and we were surrounded by the peace and tranquility of its well-manicured gardens.

That couldn't be said about the actual grave sites. Many of the older ones were sadly neglected, as the cemetery housed expats including tai pans and missionaries from Hong Kong's infancy. There were women who died during childbirth or who fell during the plague of 1894. I spotted a few familiar names like Pottinger and pointed them out to Kikabhoy.

"It's an unusual surname, so he was most likely related to our first colonial governor Henry Pottinger (1789-1856)," agrees Kikabhoy.

"The Hong Kong government takes care of the cemetery's grounds, but it is up to the deceased's descendents to take care of the graves themselves," Chow notes, as she continued the walk. "You can see that many of the headstones have eroded over time - many of these people probably don't have relatives who live in Hong Kong anymore."

On another tour, the theme was urban myths and aimed to expose some of the city's most popular legends. "We use the term myth loosely," Kikabhoy says, as he proceeds to tell tall tales about how popular culture relates to each of the sites we're visiting.

We started at the Hopewell Center and moved onto places like the 1937 Wanchai market with The Zenith, a new residential tower, grafted on top of it. We moved onto the neoclassical 1920s Grade 1 historical building Blue House before climbing up the hill to Pak Tai Temple.

"This temple includes a chamber that pays homage to Bao Zheng, an 11th century Chinese government official who still stands as a symbol for justice," says Kikabhoy, drawing connections between the architectural gems we were looking at to how we live our lives today. "As recently as last night, he was being depicted on TVB serials."

IF YOU GO

Check Walkin's website for upcoming tour dates and times. www.walkin.hk.